---
title: Warty Sea Star (Echinaster callosus)
scientific_name: Echinaster callosus
common_name: Warty Sea Star
taxon: Starfish
published: 2026-08-06T16:37:23.102Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:11:25.970Z
tags: Warty Sea Star, Echinaster callosus, Starfish, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/warty-sea-star
---

# Warty Sea Star (*Echinaster callosus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Starfish (*Asteroidea*)
- **Size:** up to 25 cm
- **Depth:** 2-30 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Rubble and hard bottom near reef
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- large rounded warts in rows along the arms
- pale body with dark bands or blotches between the warts
- five long tapering arms
- diameter up to 25 cm

A striking star to about 25 cm (10 in) with five long tapering arms carrying rows of large rounded warts, the pale body banded or blotched darker in the gaps between them. No other star here has warts on that scale, so a torch beam picking one out at night leaves no doubt about what it is.

It lives on rubble and hard bottom near reef from about 2 m to 30 m (7 to 100 ft), hiding under slabs by day and moving out after dark to feed on sponges, encrusting animals and surface film. The warts are soft rather than defensive - they are swollen extensions of the body wall, not spines, and give slightly under a finger. Color varies widely between individuals, from cream and gray through pink and orange, which is why the pattern of warts rather than the palette is the character to go by. It is scattered rather than common on these reefs, and mostly a night-dive find.

## Also known as

- **English:** banded bubble star, Nodular Sea Star
- **French:** Étoile de mer verruqueuse
- **Japanese:** オオトゲルソンヒトデ
- **Chinese:** 赤麗棘海星
- **Russian:** Бородавчатая звезда

## Range

Eastern Africa & Madagascar, Indian Ocean, New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, Palau, Red Sea, Seychelles

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/warty-sea-star)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*